You've failed to grasp the entire point
#1: Outside of the cable provider
#2: Shady at best
#3: Theft

Even if you do manage to pull off getting a card legitimately, the odds of being able to activate it at your cable company, not so much

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#1: What's the problem with getting it outside the provider? I think they should allow you to activate your own if you do get one... Nothing in the cablecard rules states that the card must come from the provider directly, but the cable companies take advantage of the ambiguity.
#2: Not shady at all. Are you suggesting that we shouldn't recycle and reuse electronics? The cable companies decide to sell the boxes all on their own.
#3: You might want to double check your definition of theft. Something paid for is by definition not theft. I highly doubt the cable companies have a clause in the agreement when you pay for non-returned equipment they they still hold the ownership of the equipment. And legally that wouldn't fly most places.

I don't understand why you are so insistent that just because something is not typically sold direct to consumers that it is wrong/shady/illegal to obtain.

Edit: Sorry I took the discussion way off topic. I concede any further statement to try and keep the thread useful for the original poster.

Except in the same system nobody has reported any success using a 3rd pty cable card stolen or not. No one has reported that their cable co would pare any cable card you provided, except some small cable systems that let you purchase the cable card from them directly.
When people start reporting that E-Bay purchased Cable cards will work then the fun will start.

TWC will only activate TWC cable cards. Same is true for Comcast and most other cablecos. NONE of them sell cable cards. Ever. Only in Canada are cable cards sold outright. In the US they are all leased. By the month or one time payment does not matter, none are sold.

If a TWC, Comcast or other US cable card is for sale on fleabay, its stolen merchandise. Ebay routinely removes these listings as they are fraudulent.

Now we're having fun. Picked up the card yesterday. That went fine until they told me there was a filter on my line to block tv because I only have internet. That I was expecting. However, I was told that the earliest they could come out to remove it is 3 weeks, and that I have to keep the card and the programming active until they remove the filter, cause if they're not active, it cancels the order to remove the order. They REALLY don't want to let you use cable cards huh? So talking an above poster's advice, I said that I also had another tv I wanted programming on, and I would need with their absolute cheapest box and I'll use that. Well then "MAGICALLY" they can send somebody out to remove the filter on Thursday. Isn't that just AMAZING?! What they don't realize is that as soon as the filter is removed their box goes back.

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I've noticed with TWC that they get these fiefdoms... and the fiefdoms can be awful. But corporate, in my experience, has actually been pretty great. But if your local fiefdom is awful, they will make you run in circles to get what they want.

Try going above the local numbers to the corporate numbers, raise a stink, and see what happens. Our local guys are trying hard, but we're a recent TWC acquisition, so they just don't know how to do a lot of stuff yet. But when I get the corporate guys on the phone, they get it all done fast.

Go ahead, name twolegitimate ways to obtain a cablecard outside of your cable provider. We'll wait. It is very, very well known that this can't be done outside of the cable provider, and if you do get one, it'll be locked to that provider. Thusly, yes, those selling them are selling stolen cards

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Aside from smaller providers selling them, how about if you lose your cablecard in a move. Then the provider charges you a non-returned equipment fee which you have to pay. 6 months later you find the card and sell it on eBay to recover some of what you lost. Not saying this is likely, but its very much possible.

Aside from smaller providers selling them, how about if you lose your cablecard in a move. Then the provider charges you a non-returned equipment fee which you have to pay. 6 months later you find the card and sell it on eBay to recover some of what you lost. Not saying this is likely, but its very much possible.

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It is still a stolen card as you never actually purchased it. You only paid a fee to cover the cableco's financial loss. Its not the same thing.

Again, there are NO cable companies in the US that SELL cable card. They only lease with very specific license terms that do not allow you to transfer ownership. They are ALL the property of the Cable company that issued them.

Where are you getting that from? If you pay the non returned equipment fee, that gear is yours. Why wouldn't it be?

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If you report a lost item to your insurance co and they give you the money for that item than sometime later you find that item do you think you own the item, and can sell it ? The insurance co owns the item, the cable co owns the cable card and it should be returned to them, and the cable co should return your money.

If you report a lost item to your insurance co and they give you the money for that item than sometime later you find that item do you think you own the item, and can sell it ? The insurance co owns the item, the cable co owns the cable card and it should be returned to them, and the cable co should return your money.

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Wait, so if the insurance company pays for something, they own it, but if you pay for something, then the Cable Company still owns it? That makes no sense.

In a slightly different flavor of this...I've got digital basic cable, to get channels in HD. They say that there's no way that I can have this without also having their box, and the ensuing $8/mo fee. It's never even been hooked up, but they say that I HAVE to have it to have the digital cable...is this right?

In a slightly different flavor of this...I've got digital basic cable, to get channels in HD. They say that there's no way that I can have this without also having their box, and the ensuing $8/mo fee. It's never even been hooked up, but they say that I HAVE to have it to have the digital cable...is this right?

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There's talk of TWC moving to eventually encrypt all channels, but AFAIK, they've not done this anywhere yet. Typically, TWC sends all of the Local Broadcast stations and sub-channels unencrypted and can be viewed by any device with a Digital cable tuner after performing a manual channel scan.

With that said, I believe Digital Basic includes a few other channels besides the CBS/ABC/NBC/FOX etc. channels. Those would require a box from TWC or a CableCARD to view since those are encrypted.